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Despite pressure over prices, the drug industry is coasting on Capitol Hill

Drug makers have been carrying on with business as usual, scoring some early legislative victories, and reminding lawmakers why they are so influential.

WASHINGTON — Less than six months ago, President Trump stood at a podium and roiled the pharmaceutical industry with an emphatic declaration that its executives are “getting away with murder.”

If Congress has its way, the same president will soon sign into law a massive package that is at the top of the industry’s wish list: a reauthorization of drug makers’ funding agreements with the Food and Drug Administration.

At least so far, the powerful pharmaceutical industry has managed to keep the package that is speeding toward Trump’s desk free of any controversial policy changes that could threaten the industry’s business model — as well as any partisan add-ons that could jeopardize its smooth, overwhelmingly bipartisan trip through the policymaking process.

That progress is a testament to an often-overlooked truth in Washington these days: Despite  and partisan brawling over health care legislation, the pharmaceutical industry

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